Monday, May 12, 2008

Robert Novak, in an article that is ostensibly about McCain's problems getting the evangelical vote (and whom he might select as VP to help that), actually spends quite a bit more time spreading this idea that Obama is viewed as a fucking "biblical plague" among that group.

Some U.S. Christians are not reconciled to McCain's candidacy but instead regard the prospective presidency of Barack Obama in the nature of a biblical plague visited upon a sinful people.

Cute, Bob. And then later:

Nevertheless, the word is that some evangelicals dispute Huckabee's support. One experienced, credible activist in Christian politics who would not let his name be used told me that Huckabee, in personal conversation with him, had embraced the concept that an Obama presidency might be what the American people deserve. That fits what has largely been a fringe position among evangelicals: that the pain of an Obama presidency is in keeping with the Bible's prophecy.

Now you're passing along an anonymous comment of some loon that says Obama is the "anti-christ?!"

According to this activist, at the heart of the let-Obama-win movement is longtime Virginia conservative leader Michael Farris -- the nation's leading home-school advocate, who is now chancellor of Patrick Henry College (in Purcellville, Va.) for home-schooled students. Best known politically as the losing Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia in 1993, Farris is regarded as one of the hardest-edged Christian politicians. He is reported in evangelical circles to promote the biblical justification for an Obama plague-like presidency.

This is the "note the freaks" approach to smearing the Left that Glenn Greenwald has written about multiple times. Greenwald:

That's how the right-wing always works. The more respectable venues promote more tepid versions of the filth being spewed by the darker corners of the noise machine, so as to keep a safe distance while simultaneously ensuring that it ends up widely circulated.